Countdown to the 2017 season: Erwin Kleinnagelvoort
09. April 2017The media usually focus on the top teams in the FIA European Truck Racing Championship, but what would the sport be without the many dedicated private outfits – the small teams that participate with an enthusiasm far out of proportion to their meagre resources and devote so much time and money for so little in return?
Perhaps the most emblematic representatives of this breed are Dutch Scania pilot Erwin Kleinnagelvoort and his crew. Last year Erwin was a regular Top 10 finisher, picking up 22 points over the season. But regardless of the performance disadvantage compared to the stronger teams, no pilot can get very far without a well-oiled backup team. The genial Dutchman’s is a very special unit – his entire family. At every round, Team Kleinnagelvoort consists of between seven and 10 members of the family (at some races there have been as many as 15!)
These individuals slog at tuning and taking care of the truck, seeing to matters of organisation, cleaning, cooking, and what have you. Not only do they not get compensated for their labours; for the most part they actually pay their way! So in a very tangible way they are also sponsors of their team. The money that comes from the financial sponsors, represented by their logos on the white Scania, goes exclusively towards the upkeep of the race truck.
Over the winter break an enormous amount of work went into rebuilding the truck after the battering it received in the second race at the season-ending Le Mans weekend. The Scania was one of the worst casualties of that most impactful (pardon the pun) and costly race of 2016.
A new cabin had to be fabricated, and the chassis too needed extremely cost- and labour-intensive repair. But the team is laying hold of opportunity even in such trying adversity, attempting mods and tweaks it wouldn’t otherwise have to actually improve the truck’s driving dynamics. The first shakedown will effectively take place at the opening round of the Dutch Truck Racing series in Zandvoort next weekend. Moreover, despite all that work on the European Championship truck, Team Kleinnagelvoort also took upon itself to prepare two more racetrucks for the Dutch series – to be piloted by members of the family of course.
If everything goes according to plan, the entire Kleinnagelvoort clan will be at the Truck Grand Prix this summer with all three trucks on the Nürburgring.
But even before that, there’s quite a bit of work ahead for Erwin and his trusted Scania in the FIA European Truck Racing Championship, because Kleinnagelvoort’s 2017 campaign will once again take in the entire season.
Impressions:
